Our recent road trip made me realize that I cry a lot these days. While we were driving through my home state, West Virginia, I was crying about half the time. I don’t even know why I was crying. It was probably some nostalgia, since I always get emotional when I return to West Virginia. Some of the crying was concern over my uncle’s health and the possibility that I might never see him again.

I cried when I heard about the bombings in Boston and cried every time I saw pictures or heard stories about the victims or the injured.

I am certainly not ashamed of crying. I was always emotional, for my entire life, and was known to cry from time to time.

But it is different now. My emotions seem raw and hyper-sensitive so that I cry at the drop of a hat. Once the tears start, it is difficult for me to gain my composure. My cancer has exposed this tendency of mine to the world. I’m okay with it at this point, but I wonder if it will get worse and worse . . .